Sunday, July 13, 2008

Twelve stories that deserve a twelve-part series in the Washington Post more than the brutal murder of Chandra Levy seven years ago.

4,075

30,182

The shameful neglect of our brave servicemen and women in the VA hospital system -- even at national showcase Walter Reed. (The post's pulitzer-prize-winning coverage seems to have consisted of nine main articles).

The enshrinement of an imperial presidency with the right to violate laws at whim, codified by a scared Democratic Congress through its vote on FISA.

The development of a complacent, inside-the-bubble Washington press corps that is more concerned with getting invited to the next cocktail party than holding those in power accountable.

One sad face of the mortgage crisis -- people you know who stretched themselves not because they were selfish, but because they were a combination of optimistic for their future prospects and maybe a little self-deluded, who felt that in ten years when their balloon mortgage exploded they would have "made it" and could refinance on their own terms.

The murder of a young man named Ronnie White -- who by all accounts was a bad, bad person, and who allegedly killed a cop, making him the lowest of the low -- in his Washington-area prison cell, in what looks like a retribution killing by authorities sworn to uphold the law this man broke time and again. This seemingly officially sanctioned death is an extraordinary attack on everything this country stands for: rule of law, innocent until proven guilty, and a belief in order over chaos. Yet how can we be surprised in an era when these values are officially trampled at the highest level?

An exploration of the ripple effects of an official policy implicitly endorsing torture -- how it is felt in all aspects of American society, in popular culture, in our penal system, in our foreign policy, and in our own homes.

OBL.

The shady political machinations of corporations aligned with the Bush administration to surpress, then question, then delay action on climate change -- and a serious look at what action will be necessary to forestall the worst if the current scientific consensus is accurate.

America's retreat from the world, the world's revulsion with America -- and how both make us dramatically less secure than we were eight years ago.